Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Caste Based Reservation

Caste Based Reservation (CBR) in India finds its roots to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Poona Pact of 1932. It found new faces with the adoption of Constitution of India and the more recent Mandal Commission. With clauses to apply and observe the reservation system for just a decade, India recently turned 60 year old free republic.
CBR can be considered similar to Rent Control, where the government regulates and controls the supply/demand. So can we call CBR a good thing? In my opinion - Yes. But how would one decide the percentage of reservation? This is where the matters get complicated. In a free economy, the forces of supply and demand would reach equilibrium. In case of Rent Control, degree of rent increases are limited by the Consumer Price Index (change in Consumer Price Index is a measure of Inflation). What is the rationale for fixing the percentage of CBR? It seems to have been largely political driven rather than any “market forces”. It is also proposed to introduce CBR in private sector. I wonder how longer the MNCs can keep calling themselves “Equal Opportunity Employer”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"CBR can be considered similar to Rent Control, where the government regulates and controls the supply/demand. So can we call CBR a good thing? In my opinion - Yes."

- Why is that an obvious conclusion ?

Supreeth Kini said...

While I agree with CBR, I actually approve of its origin. I do not warrant its existence (let alone the increase in its percentage) in today's India.

Anonymous said...

Supreeth, I was talking not about CBR being good/bad but 'rent control' as such which has pretty much been discredited as counter-productive :)

- Sharath (oops, the one above was me too :D )